Shooting the Kokot (Perast Votive Day)

Every 15 May, Perast celebrates its Votive Day — Gađanje kokota, the Shooting of the Kokot — commemorating the town's victory over Ottoman forces on this date in 1654. It is one of the oldest living commemorations in the Bay of Kotor, and the whole baroque town takes part.

Perast wears its history openly: a single waterfront street of sea captains' palaces and church towers facing the two islets offshore, built in the centuries when this tiny town punched far above its weight on the Adriatic. The victory commemorated each May belongs to that same story — a small community defending its bay — and the anniversary has been kept alive ever since.

The day opens with a procession of the Boka Navy accompanied by the Kotor City Music, marching along the waterfront in historic uniforms. Before St. Nicholas Church the Navy dances its traditional kolo, followed by a solemn mass and the laying of wreaths in memory of the town's defenders.

The ritual that gave the day its name — the shooting of the kokot (rooster) from a boat off the waterfront — has been suspended entirely since 2019, and today the celebration centres on the procession, the kolo, the mass and the wreath-laying. The name endures as a memory of the centuries-old custom rather than a practice you will see performed.

For visitors, the appeal is intimacy. There are no barriers and no grandstands: you stand on the same stone waterfront as the townspeople, close enough to hear the commands and the brass, with the still morning bay as a backdrop. It is Boka tradition performed for the community itself, not staged for an audience.

The celebration is free and compact — everything happens along Perast's single waterfront street and the church square, easily covered on foot in minutes. Mid-May is a lovely, uncrowded time in the bay, with mild weather and clear light, and the Votive Day makes a memorable reason to time a Perast visit before the summer season begins.